I have had a kayak for 6 seasons now.....never felt the need for a fish finder! One more pain in the butt gadget to have to deal with! I have more fun finding the fish on my own and it gives me more satisfaction when I do! I find fish finders to be somewhat annoying and that they take away from the experience over all! You are out on the water and if you are not marking fish.....you feel somewhat deflated and it gives you no hope of catching unless you see marks! I enjoy the thrill of when I catch a fish! Its all me.....probing rocky shorelines and employing different lures to find the fish!

Only benefit I would find from them is as a depth finder then again....I generall hang over structure in 10 feet of water or less so.......

Ditto with the previous post. Many times I have found fish that didn't show by noting the change in temperature. I also fish shallow areas mostly less than 10 feet and fish don't always show on the display but I have noticed that a three or four degree drop in temperature will usually result in more action during the dog days of summer. The reverse is true in the spring in seeking out warmer pockets of water.

I use it more for Water Temp, Depth, Structure, and Trolling Speed than to look for fish....

yep - I rarely mark any fish I catch in the rocks, more for depth and I like to have the gps to find structure and for trolling speed as well.

totally agree though that the yak is all about keeping it simple and its one more thing that breaks. I spent 20 minutes before an outing last week messing with the wiring before i said f it and just went fishing!

the other reason its nice to have is if you are looking for macks, I've located macks before on my way to another spot when I started making fish.